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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Orange Revolution left indelible mark on Ukraine
THE Orange Revolution may be dead after the Ukrainian parliament turfed its leadership last week, but its pro-democracy ghost will haunt Ukraine for a long time, says a Winnipegger who helped nudge the country in that direction.
"Ukraine is developing -- warts and all -- as a democratic system where everyone more or less plays by the rules," said Ostap Skrypnyk, who was among hundreds of Canadians who served as election observers in Ukraine in 2004.
"I think five years ago was the first time people really took charge of their lives and played a really active role in the political life of the country and that probably hasn't changed," said the former executive director of the Winnipeg-based Ukrainian Canadian Congress.
The 2004 vote was held after Ukrainian citizens took to the streets en masse wearing bright orange scarves to protest the fraud-tainted presidential election of pro-Russian, Kremlin-friendly Viktor Yanukovych.
Ukraine's Supreme Court overturned his election. A new vote, with more than 500 election observers from Canada, ended in defeat for Yanukovych and a win for pro-Western reformer Viktor Yushchenko.
Yulia Tymoshenko became his prime minister, but their relationship eroded and nearly paralyzed Ukraine's government as it struggled with the global economic downturn.
The Ukrainian parliament ousted the government of Orange coalition leader Tymoshenko in a non-confidence vote last week.
She lost last month's presidential election to the Orange coalition's foe, Yanukovych. He narrowly won the presidential election, which international observers called mostly free and fair.
"That's one of the legacies," said Skrypnyk, who believes the Orange Revolution deserves some of the credit. "On the whole, (the election) was more or less free and open."
Orange may be out, but it left an indelible mark on Ukraine, he said.
"There's an active civil society in Ukraine. Freedom of the press was one of the major achievements of the revolution... Some of these things are still with us -- they're not going to go backward with that."
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 13, 2010 A7
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